Saturday, April 11, 2015

Sad Perros tell us we're not worthy

Cops caught on camera murdering blacks
and Latinos. Chicano Studies programs shut down. Books by Sherman Alexie, Toni
Morrison and Rudy Anaya banned. Latin American immigrants scapegoated.
Republicans slashing benefits of the poor and unemployed. This is your country
on drugs. Drugs of hate, ignorance, racism and militaristic aggression--let's
call that HIRMA. Some think of themselves as "sad puppies" but in a different sense,
they're sadder than that.

People may say I shouldn't have
posted what's below. That I'm sensationalizing, maybe even stooping to the
level of a HIRMA type. It's also possible my career may suffer from this. Well,
it wasn't rocketing to stardom, anyway. Besides, there's no future in being a
silent German when the socialists, radicals and non-pure Germans are being
marched into cattle cars.

The following statements may sound
familiar. What you may not know is where they originate. Take a guess.

"In the last decade we’ve
seen voting skew more and more toward having barely any content. We’ve seen the
voting skew ideological, as people have tended to use them as an affirmative
action award: winning because he is an underrepresented minority or victim
group or because she features an underrepresented minority or victim group."

"We seem almost permanently stuck on the subversive
switcheroo: transgender socialists fight the evil corporations. Troops fight
for evil, not good. Us as invaders and the natives as the righteous victims.
Yadda yadda yadda."

"This story is merely about
racial prejudice and exploitation. Or could it be an actual bona fide story?
No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women."

"We strike back against the
left-wing control freaks who have subjected our work to ideological control for
two decades and are now attempting to do the same thing in other industries.”

If you guessed Rush Limpbaugh, Ted
Cruize or the Kuacha brothers, you deserve half-credit.

What might surprise you is that
these HIRMA statements and positions all relate to or were written by famous,
successful, American authors. Of science fiction. Award winners, public
speakers, some college-educated, mostly males. Adults, if you will. Or their
fans. [I deleted words about sci-fi that would've made it obvious what the
quotes were about. But the gist of information, I left untouched.]

If you're interested in science
fiction or fantasy, here are the names of some of the HIRMA leaders responsible
for the above statements. Should you not read their works because of their
political views? That's your decision; I myself would not. Their ideology and
prejudice are outrageous for a supposedly civilized country. So, among others, you
might want to know the names:

Brad TorgensenLarry CorreiaTheodore Beale

There is an
uproar in the sci-fi/fantasy world because these HIRMAs hijacked one of the
most prestigious awards for speculative literature, the Hugos. You can read
about it, but the hijacking was meant to prevent feminist, gay, People of
Color, or other progressive writers from winning the awards.

"In
science fiction, the thesis was that Earthmen (all of whom, in the ideal
Campbell story, resembled people of northwestern European extraction) were
superior to all other intelligent races — even when the others seemed more intelligent on the surface.

"SF,
and really any literature, has always, explicitly or implicitly, knowingly or
unknowingly, had some sort of ideology behind it.

"It seems so to me, as a
white male; broadly speaking, my impression is that issues of identity politics
and social justice are increasingly prominent in North American society. Any
society will have internal tensions over gender roles and the position of
minorities, and, given that, it’s healthy for people in that society to address
those tensions and be mindful of them.

"And art--specifically
including ‘pop culture entertainment’--is a particularly worthwhile way in
which to do that. I don’t mean that I think all art must be or should be
explicitly concerned with these issues. But I think it’s clear that art that
does so is speaking to the time and culture out of which it was produced.

"I think that art that
tries to better represent the experience of women and minority groups is good
to have. I think it’s good for society in general that it exists, and generally
good that more and different points of view are represented in art. I think
it’s good for me as a reader that I can find books that teach me new things.
And I think that art that tries to present varied experiences and varied
sensibilities is likely to be better art, in that it will have a deeper sense
of the complexity of the world, and I think complexity is usually valuable in
art."

Some Anglo authors have not sided with the HIRMAs. "Matthew
Surridge declined his nomination for
Best Fan Writer, citing “strong” aesthetic and ideological
disagreements with Torgerson. Kameron Hurley seemed inclined to wash her hands of the Hugos
altogether." Also, George R.R. Martin.

If you're wondering whether I
exaggerated how these ideas are manifestations of hate, ignorance, racism and
militaristic aggression, here's a random selection of tweets written by them or
their supporters. Warning: don't let
your kids read these.

"If you think for one nano-second that we won’t
burn this mother fucker to the ground and roast marshmallows over the corpses….
you’re dead wrong… And if you think we give a damn about your appeal for
civility…. you’re also dead wrong."

"We will burn it to the ground, plow the ground,
and salt it. You fuckwads don’t understand war. We do."

My final thoughts on this idiocy?
Science fiction, fantasy and all speculative fiction obviously need new, young
blood, more Chicanos, blacks, Indians and radical thinkers to invigorate the
literature. We've seen the dismal pit the HIRMA types would plunge it into.

Caravana 43 in Denver today & tomorrow

Family of the 43
missing students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico, who were tortured and disappeared by the
Mexican state,will be in
Colorado April 11th through the 13th, as part of a national speaking
tour known as Caravana 43. While in Colorado, the group will visit Denver,
Greeley and Longmont.

The purpose of the
visit is to provide a platform for the group to share their continuing struggle
for justice and to bring national attention to the systematic violence and
impunity that continues to plague Mexico. The arrival of Caravana 43 in
Colorado will mark over six months from the night of the attack that occurred
in the city of Iguala on the evening of September 26, 2014, which left six
people dead and 43 students forcibly disappeared.

The organizations Al Frente de Lucha and
Colorado Sin Fronteras Unidos por Mexico consider it an honor and privilege to
host the group of parents and classmates of the 43 disappeared students in
Colorado. Below is the list of
activities planned for this historic visit: